


Love Never Dies

by alexcat



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Mention of Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Off screen, Soul Stone (Marvel), returning the stones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25148389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Steve kept the trip to Vormir to return the Soul Stone for last, not because it was the best, but because it was the worst, the one he dreaded the most.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20
Collections: Of Elves and Men





	Love Never Dies

**Author's Note:**

> I have been thinking about this for, um, more than a year now.

Steve kept the trip to Vormir to return the Soul Stone for last, not because it was the best, but because it was the worst, the one he dreaded the most. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he got there. All Clint had said about it was there was a red floaty guy there. 

He had returned all the other Infinity Stones quite easily. He’d gone to Camp Lehigh and slipped the Tesseract back in the lab. No one saw him. He’d gone to New York and slipped the Scepter back into the case just before they turned it over to Sitwell and the STRIKE team. No one saw him there either.

He had met the Ancient One and given her back the Time Stone. She asked him a question. “Did it work?” He had assured her that it did and she had smiled and nodded, saying, “I was right to trust him then.” 

He had seen Thor’s beautiful mother in Asgard when he returned the Reality Stone. She had also asked him a question. “Is he all right, my son?” He had assured her that Thor was well. She’d seemed relieved. She had hugged him and wished him well. 

He’d returned the Power Stone to the place Peter Quill had taken it from on Morag, remembering what Nebula said about using tongs to put it in the safe so he didn’t burn his hand off. 

This one, the Soul Stone, was all that was left. He set his time GPS and he was on Vormir. It was rugged and quite beautiful, with colorful skies and craggy mountains. He wasn’t sure what to expect when he got there. He knew there was a guardian for the Soul Stone on Vormir. He didn’t know who it was until he saw him. 

“It’s you,” he said when he saw that the ‘red floaty guy’ was Red Skull. “Johann Schmidt.”

“Captain! It has been a long time. I see you are still alive as well. You have come to bind me to this planet forever, haven’t you?” 

Steve saw that he really did float like Clint had said. Other than that, he was much as Steve remembered from a lifetime ago. 

“I have come to return the Soul Stone. Is there any chance that I can get her back?” 

“The Russian girl? No, I’m afraid the Soul Stone keeps what it takes. You must cast the stone over the edge.” He waved his arm toward the cliff. 

“Can’t I give it to you?” 

Red Skull floated away from him. “I cannot touch it. I am only its guardian. I may never touch an Infinity Stone again.” He again waved toward the cliff edge, the place where Natasha had died. 

Steve opened his pack and took the Soul Stone out. It hovered over his palm, almost touching him but not quite. It was a brilliant orange hue. He walked to the edge. He couldn’t see the bottom, but he knew that is where Natasha went when she jumped, where she died. For a moment, it was if he could see her broken body lying at the bottom. 

He tossed the Stone. 

In the next moment, he woke in a place with an orange sky. Or maybe it was an orange fog. He knew he was inside the Soul Stone somehow. 

“I hoped you’d come.” 

He turned sharply. That voice was as familiar as his own. There she stood – Natasha. His beautiful Natasha. He couldn’t breathe for a moment. He never thought he’d see her again.

“Is it really you?” At first, he couldn’t believe it. She was as she had been when he met her, with her red hair cut into a bob just above her shoulders and she was dressed in her catsuit. 

She nodded to him and smiled a smile that was a ghost of her real smile. “Did you win?” she asked him. 

“We did.” 

She echoed Gamora’s question to Thanos. “What did it cost?” 

“Stark. He sacrificed himself to destroy Thanos.”

“Then it was worth it, my own sacrifice?” 

“I don’t know. It’s hard to live in a world without you in it.”

She smiled again, quite sadly this time. “I didn’t do it for you to be sad. I did it to save you all. I love you, Steve. Surely you know that. I might be gone but love never dies.” 

And the next thing he knew, he was sitting in a puddle of water. 

Oddly enough, clutched in his hand was his locket with Peggy’s picture in it. He knew then what he had to do. He set his GPS for Washington, DC in 1948. He was going home. 

At last.

**Author's Note:**

> My [**Tumblr**](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/alexcat45).


End file.
